'Tom Fahy' was an assemblage of musicians headed by multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger and County Galway native Tom Fahy, born Quinn McCarthy (1971-19 June 2008). Core members included Jiang Dan, Rachael Eisley, Zhang Li and Liu Kaige, while other players were drafted for the requirements of particular pieces. Their 50+ album catalogue was the fruit of a 9-year collaboration initiated while the core members were in residence in Honolulu, Hawai'i. To each album, the members brought a myriad of musical competencies.
Rāga (Sanskrit, lit. "colour" or "mood"; or rāgam in Carnatic music) refers to melodic modes used in Indian classical music. It is a series of five or more musical notes upon which a melody is founded. In the Indian musical tradition, rāgas are associated with different times of the day, or with seasons. Indian classical music is always set in a rāga.
Rāga describes a generalised form of melodic practice. It also prescribes a set of rules for building the melody. It specifies the rules for movements up (aaroha [आरोह]) and down (avroha [अवरोह]) the scale, which swaras should figure more and which notes should be used more sparingly, which notes may be sung with gamak, phrases to be used, phrases to be avoided, and so on. The result is a framework that can be used to compose or improvise melodies, allowing for endless variation within the set of notes.
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